flickr blogging

P3030028, a photo by Dr. Ellen on Flickr.

I'm pretty sure this photo is going to end up some wonky ass size, not centered, and ca-razy, but I'm not logging out of my other gmail account to fix it, because I'm trying to keep in touch with Hubs. It's touch-and-go because this poor little computer is on its last legs, though.

N. and I are home today, after two days of back-and-forth to the doctor. I made the mistake the other day of saying, "gee isn't it great that I made it through this winter without getting bronchitis?" Sunday night - WHAM! breathing difficulties and nothing but an expired inhaler in the house.

Yesterday I brought N. to daycare so I could go and get fixed up, then sleep for a couple of hours, but I got the pinkeye call at 4pm. Too late to get him seen at the doc, of course. We got up crazyass early this morning to make it in for the first appointment, and it's either not pinkeye or the mildest case ever in history. We're treating just in case.

I also get to go into non-work tomorrow to work on some more loose ends that we found. I just hope that everyone who's sick today isn't sick tomorrow. Luckily N. will have had 24 hours of treatment by tomorrow morning and I can drop him off to get that stuff done.

I haven't gotten much knitting or crochet done in the past few days... I finished the Taiyo Boteh but didn't take pics yet, and cast on a Baby Surprise Jacket for a friend who's having a baby of as-yet undetermined gender. I have a pink and yellow one done, so this one will be green-blue-grey-yellow (STR Siren Song for those keeping track). It's not really boyish, but a very nice neutral, so it should do either way.

And with that I'm going to pick up the table and maybe do some sewing... I think I need a few days to recharge my yarn mojo after churning out those vests and that scarf ;-)

bleargh.

I'm sick. Today I:
went for a bagel with my boys, to get fresh air.
drank tea.
started the major clean-up that takes place before Mom shows up.

My clean-up consisted of organizing the messiest place in the apartment - my yarn and craft area. I spent/wasted a great deal of time re-winding the ends of balls, so I could pack them away neatly. I have a lot of worsted, a lot of STR, and a lot of shit ;-)

Time to cook dinner...

Cue the cute :-)

Not bad for a few weeks work, methinks ;)

Too tired for a Friday

I totally have no reason to be tired... but I am. Today I did some work (boo), a lot of laundry (double boo) and finished a second cabled vest. No pics, because Hubby is still using the camera to photograph petri plates for work. The vest itself was a little easier to assemble the second time around; I think I may have found an error (or at least I assumed it to be an omission) in the shoulder construction, re-did it to suit my needs, and it turned out just fine. For some reason, with the first one I had to try to evenly pick up stitches around the neck and armholes about five times before it worked out. This time, I hit it spot on the first go round. After weaving in endless ends (a couple of breaks in the skein, plus I added an extra stripe to this one), and it's blocking, hopefully to be dry for church on Sunday.

I wish I had enough free cash to buy more of the 1824 wool to do another, but I just don't. My friend, Miss L., has a great-grandson and would probably love to have one, but neither of us are particularly liquid at the moment. *sigh* Maybe next month... I spent my last little bit of yarn money on a ball of Noro Taiyo Sock yarn, which is disgustingly pretty and looks like it'll make yet another fabulous Boteh.

Hmmm... dost mine ears deceive me? Is it possible that the child is asleep? (the time change kicked our asses this week, and we're still adjusting...) Let's see... dishwasher running. Child sleeping. Hubby is in lab. All that remains between me and that Taiyo is some laundry to be folded. Bet I can take care of that quick-smart :-)

Waiting for Spring

2liqy0h7 a photo by Dr. Ellen on Flickr.

The boys were puttering outside on the weekend, looking for the landlord's cats to annoy, and I thought they were pretty cute. Ignore the scarf and knitted hat, because it's gonna be 65 tomorrow :-)))))

I wish I had more to report, but I don't... 33 days until my mom arrives... another few after that for N.'s birthday, then two more til mine. I'm not prepared, still have shopping to do, but it'll be fantastic, I'm certain :-)

Now, let's hope this picture posts properly; yesterdays was wonky and I'm hoping that it's not a permanent change to how blogger does things...

We also made pancakes :-)

P3050057 a photo by Dr. Ellen on Flickr.

Pardon the messy hair and the very tiny kitchen... N. and I made pancakes together last week while waiting for Hubby to come home from work. Sometimes cooking with him works, and sometimes it's a disaster - this time it wasn't too bad.

I'm at work digging out oligos for my boss, and sort of peeved at myself with the 'organizational scheme' i used the past few years... but since there's not much to be done about it now except clean up, I'm not going to stress.

I really need to get pics of the vest up, and finish the second one, but my lack of a computer most days totally cramps my style ;) I'm hoping for a tax refund this year rather than paying out, so we'll see...

Oh, and this rain can take a flying leap. Preferably far away from my <1 yr old rubber boots that have a damn hole in them. Sigh.

A quick pictureless progress report

I've crocheted three dinosaurs in total (purple, pink, and dark green)... I've managed to finish the first cabled vest from the super sale mission falls and the second one is 1/4 done. I've baked cookies, and dealt with sick husbands and defiant toddlers.

And it's five weeks until my mom comes to visit... and I can't wait that long :P

a weird few days

Hubby came down with what we're pretty sure was food poisoning this weekend.... N. and I have been spared so far, and we thought Hubs was better yesterday... but today he's just drained and exhausted....

perhaps it's the 14-16 hours days he's putting in at the lab six or seven days a week.

I had to bring him home, install him with gatorade and crackers and dvds, and now I'm going back to pick up the child from daycare.

(I do think it's food poisoning rather than something contagious but I'm still going to be careful).

Off I go, tra la tra la.

A successful day in things other than knitting and crochet...

today was one of the more busy days I've had lately... daycare opened late because of a staff meeting, so N. and I bussed in at the normal time and did some visiting around the hospital for fun... then after I dropped him off at 10am, I set out to do some errands.

diapers and other assorted drugstore things: check. setting up dental appointment for the child: check at hyperspeed, which made the day a little nutsy.

I was planning on taking him to a hygeinist who has her daughter at our daycare - at the very least she's a familiar face. Hoping for an appointment within the month, I went to the office to check (they're three blocks from daycare and campus). Turns out she had a double slot open this afternoon, so I grabbed it.

4o minutes and some seriously great toddler behavior later, I had a kid with a sparkling smile and polished teeth, with no tears and no dental phobias :-)

what I didn't mention is that I had to leave my lab lunch date early to get to the appointment on time, leaving behind the most delicious hamburger I've had in years. I had it at 3pm, reheated in the microwave at Hubby's lab, and it was still pretty awesome.

after all that running around, I'm pretty zonked, so I'm likely not making much sense (and from the looks of things, forgetting about uppercase letters to begin sentences)... I'll leave you with crochet to tide everyone over while I catch up on sleep... I bought some patterns from Stacey to thank her for N.''s monster, and in the span of three days I made two dinosaurs, one pink and one purple, for new babies that are either here already or coming soon. The purple one is the only documented one so far, but they are freakin adorable (and at 9" tall, very huggable):

The crooked tail gets me every time ;)

I just realized I forgot to post about my cake :-)

P2270001 a photo by Dr. Ellen on Flickr.

I made a *cake*. It was delicious, and there is a 2x3" piece in my freezer - the rest is gone.

I made a marble cake flavoured with orange... I was going to use grand marnier, but we're not sure if one of the lab member's strict no-alcohol policy includes baked goods, so I left it out. I used an orange simple syrup to keep the cake moist, and made swiss meringue buttercream flavoured with, you guessed it - orange.

The flowers were pre-colored Wilton fondant, but the main cake is covered in the homemade stuff. It was so much easier to work with than the storebought stuff, and much cheaper, so I'm a convert. I'm not sure this will be the final design, but at least I know I can make something that doesn't look like ass, and photographs well.

In bullets:
-it was delicious
-the buttercream deflated after being rewhipped out of the fridge, and should be put on the cake the day it's made
-I can fondant a square cake without tears (as in, tears in the fondant, not tears from my eyes)
-the ingredients are going to be expensive, but since I'm not paying for it (I'll be baking the final one for a wedding next year), it's all good.

Next experiment (in three months to spread out the caloric massiveness) will be lemon raspberry.